Angel of Snow
by Russet022
Summary: The eleven-year-old Marauders have a snowball fight, despite Remus' tendency to philosophize and the Gryffindor girls' disdain for such childish behavior. A gift-fic for Shadow.


A/N: Anything recognizable belongs to J. K. Rowling. Tilia and Anna are mine; Jessy is Shadow-ofthe-Night35's. I just borrowed her for a little bit. That said, this was originally a gift-fic for Shadow. And I really meant for this story to be about Sirius and to be merely humorous, but Remus and the beginnings of his angst crept in. However, this led to a cute ending, so I left it. My characters know what they're doing. Which is more than I know, sometimes...

Angel of Snow

Sirius Black closed his eyes, hoping that he was imagining the cold, wet trickle down the back of his robes. This was rather pointless, because he knew that something had just slammed into the back of his head with enough force to send him reeling face-first into the snow piled at the edge of the path down to Hagrid's hut. He took a deep breath, trying not to choke on errant snowflakes, and pushed himself up with all the dignity of a soaking wet eleven-year-old.

"All right, who did that?" he shouted, whirling on the spot to try to find the snowball thrower, who was going to get one right in the kisser in a moment.

But even as he packed a super slushy snowball in anticipation of that happy event, a part of him realized it was a wasted effort. Whoever had thrown the snowball at him had disappeared into the crowd. It wasn't actually that cold out, as long as you were mostly dry, and the last class before lunch on a Friday had just let out. Not only were there third years from Care of Magical Creatures and fourth years from Herbology on the grounds; there were also quite a few first years, like Sirius and his friends, who had decided to marvel at the first heavy snow of the year by running in it. The twit in his dorm, who always followed him and James around—Peter, that was it—he'd even made a snow angel.

Sirius had laughed, of course. So had James. Snow angels were for babies. But when Peter had gone in to use the loo, James and Sirius had flopped down in the snow around the corner of the castle where no one could see them and made a whole flock of snow angels for the heck of it. Well, actually, because it was fun, and Sirius hadn't been allowed to have fun at home since he was old enough to know what fun was. And then they had casually walked back around the corner in time to meet Peter as he came back out. They had stood there, awkwardly, not knowing what to do next, until James suggested they take a walk to Hagrid's.

And just as they were getting close to the lake, a snowball had come from behind, knocked Sirius into the snow bank, and the thrower had vanished without hanging around for payback, which was just bad manners. James and Peter were doubled over, laughing.

"You think it's funny, do you?" Sirius said, trying to be intimidating, and failing miserably. The other two just laughed harder. "I'd say it was one of you two losers, if you hadn't been in front of me."

"Hey! Who are you calling a loser?" James asked.

"You," Sirius said with a smirk, holding his slushy snowball up in warning.

"You just try it," James smirked back. Sirius took the invitation.

The mess was spectacular. Sirius couldn't miss at point blank, and the snow fluffed up into James' hair while the slush smeared over his glasses.

"Hey! I can't see! I can't see!" he shouted swiping at Sirius in an attempt to tackle him. Sirius danced out of the way, laughing.

"Your hair's actually lying flat, James," Peter said, laughing as well.

"Wha—?" James' hands flew to the top of his head. "My hair!" he howled. "You messed up my hair!"

Sirius shrugged. He failed to notice, however, that James' antics had sent most of the slush flying from his glasses. James bent, wiping the last of it off with mittened hands, and then scooped up a fistful of snow, lobbing it into Sirius' face.

"No fair," Sirius shouted. "You said you couldn't see."

"Well, I—"

James explanation was cut off by a mouthful of snow. They stared at each other for a long moment. Peter waited, worried that they were angry at each other and that he would be expected to pick a side. But the two simply continued to stare, eyes narrowed. The silence stretched. Then both shouted simultaneously.

"Snowball War!"

"Wait, what?" Peter asked, failing to understand the logic of Sirius and James' logic.

"Right," James said. "I get Peter."

"Hey! That's two against one!" Sirius said.

"So, go find a teammate," James shrugged. "There are enough people out here. Five minutes. Come on Peter, we need a snow fort."

"Hey! I didn't agree—"

But James had slung an arm around Peter's shoulders and was busily discussing plans for his fort. Peter simply nodded, ecstatic that he was important to James' plan.

Sirius crossed his arms and pouted, but a part of him knew that that would get him no where, so he sighed huffily and stalked off in the direction of a group of other first years. He knew they were first years because they were shorter than the other students milling on the snow-covered lawn. But as he got closer, he grimaced in dismay and took a long detour. Normally he wouldn't hesitate to pick a fight with the Slytherins, but he only had five minutes, and James wasn't there to back him up. No, James was getting a jump on him by building a snow fort with Peter.

Grumbling under his breath, wishing he'd thought to call team first, he ran across a likely looking teammate. His cousin was sitting with her friends in an out of the way alcove. In the not-so-distant distance, he could see James and Peter, feverishly packing snow into a semi-circle. The Gryffindor girls seemed to be discussing it.

"What is Potter doing?" Lily Evans asked. Ever since Sirius and James had ticked her off at the feast, she had been avoiding them.

"Looks like a snow fort," Anna Seymour said.

"A snow fort?" Tilia Manoran asked skeptically. "Why on earth would he be building a snow fort by himself? Who's he playing against?"

"Only Black would be childish enough to suggest it," Jessy Elwyn sniffed.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed angrily. "I'm not childish." The four girls turned.

"Eavesdropping is pretty juvenile, too, cousin," Tilia said witheringly.

He made a face at her. "I wasn't eavesdropping. I was walking past, looking for a teammate, and I happened to overhear."

"You want to know what else is childish?" Lily asked. The other girls nodded. "Laughing at someone for making snow angels, and then making some yourself."

"Oh, yeah." The other girls all nodded, contemplating Sirius, who looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Look, I didn't mean it like that," he began.

Jessy raised an eyebrow. 'Then how did you mean it?"

"Well, it's baby-ish to only make one. You have to make a bunch of them, otherwise, it's like, um—"

Jessy and Lily exchanged a look, rolling their eyes in disgust. "How can you stand to be related to him, Tilia?" Jessy asked.

"He has his moments," Tilia said loftily. All four girls broke down giggling at that. Sirius wondered what on earth was going on. It hadn't been that funny… unless of course it was some stupid in-joke that he couldn't possibly understand because they were girls. He sniffed, drawing himself up with all the dignity he could muster.

"I was going to ask one of you to be my teammate, but now I think I'll just go find someone else."

They began to laugh harder. Sirius wondered, for a fleeting moment, what he had done wrong. Everyone was laughing at him today, not to mention someone had thrown a snowball at him and gotten away with it. He sighed, and looked around, desperately hoping a better option would present itself. The only other person he saw, however, was that really shy kid in his dorm—the one who never said anything and kept to himself. He was looking at the snow angels that James and Sirius had made earlier. Best not to bother him then, Sirius thought.

Just then, James caught his eye. He was waving at Sirius, holding up his first finger, and laughing. One minute. He only had one minute. Well, there was nothing for it. He swallowed, and left the giggling girls to their strange conversations. He walked towards the other boy.

"Don't step in it," Remus Lupin said quietly as Sirius came up next to him. Sirius checked at the other boy's words, just shy of stepping in the angel at the boy's feet.

"Hey, uh, Remus?" he asked uncertainly. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know anything about Remus, and they'd been sharing a dorm for three months. In a sudden rush of Christmastime guilt, he thought that maybe he and James should have made more of an effort. A more Sirius-like thought muttered that Remus could have made an effort, too.

"Yes?" the other boy asked back suspiciously.

"Um, we're—James and Peter and me—having a snowball fight, and I wondered if you wanted to be on my team?" Sirius smiled brightly.

"That's okay. I know you asked Tilia—" Remus began quietly.

Sirius looked back at the girls, then traced his footprints from there to the snow angels with his eyes. "Wow. You have good ears."

"You weren't exactly talking quietly," Remus said, slightly defensively.

"Hey, no offense," he said. "So, you playing? I mean, you must have heard that they said 'no.'"

Remus mumbled something that Sirius didn't quite catch. He frowned, then shrugged, smiled, and grabbed the other boy by the arm. "Come on; it'll be fun."

"But I've never been in a snowball fight before," he protested. "I don't know how to play."

"Oh, it's easy," Sirius said flippantly. "You just hit the other guys with as many snowballs as you can and try not to get hit yourself."

"Then how do you know who wins?" Remus asked, brow creased in confusion.

"Does it matter?" Sirius asked.

"I thought winning was everything with you guys. Well, keeping score, anyway." Remus muttered. Sirius shrugged, and stopped in front of James and Peter's fort.

"Interesting choice, Sirius," James said. Remus looked down, biting his lip. Sirius glared at James.

"You only gave me five minutes. Speaking of which, can we have another five to build our snow fort?"

"You're going to need it," James said, grinning. "I've been pre-rolling some of my specialty. Slush-balls of Doom, I like to call them."

"You can't pre-build a slush-ball," Sirius sniffed. "They get too soggy, and don't travel as far. Come on, Remus. Let's get a defensive wall up."

"Okay," he said quietly.

Sirius watched the other boy as they started packing snow in silence, but he could not fault his technique. "Are you sure you've never done this before?" he asked.

"Oh, well, I've built castles before," Remus murmured. "The battlements are a pain."

Sirius stared for a moment before nodding. "O-kay," he said slowly. Remus looked at him, then away.

"Guess that's not normal, huh?" he asked

"No," Sirius said. "Though my brother and I tried to make a tunnel once, so that we could crawl out the window, and sneak outside without leaving footprints."

Remus stared at him. "Yeah, not quite normal either, I guess," Sirius mumbled.

A Slush-ball of Doom, patent pending in James Potter's name, flew over their heads. "Time to start!" James called across the gap between the forts.

"We're not done yet!" Sirius shouted back.

"Too bad," James laughed. The next snowball he threw hit Sirius in the face. Sirius bent to gather one to retaliate, but James was already reeling from the slush-ball Remus had been forming while the other two had been talking. Remus looked a bit sheepish, but Sirius grinned.

"That's the idea," he said. "Let's get 'em."

The boys spent the next ten minutes in a flurry of flying snow and slush. When the packable snow became scarce behind each of the forts, reconnaissance missions to the no-man's land placed them in danger of friendly fire, because, as Sirius had said, a pre-formed slush-ball doesn't go half as far as a fresh one.

Sirius, in between the two forts on a snow-gathering mission, ignored a burst of laughter from behind his fort as he ducked a snowball James threw. It hit Peter on the back of the head, and he slipped, sprawling face-first. Sirius took the moment while James shouted at Peter to run back behind his fortress. He looked at Remus.

"Who's laughing?" he asked.

Remus glanced behind them. "Um, Tilia, Lily, Anna, and Jessy."

"They're laughing at us? Why?" Sirius asked.

Remus shrugged. "Because we probably look a little silly."

"Hey!" Sirius shouted, standing up and turning to face the girls. "What are you laughing at?"

James' snowball hit him on the back of the head at the same time Jessy's hit him on the shoulder. He slipped on the icy packed snow behind the fort and sat down, hard. "Ow," he said petulantly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Two for two," Tilia said. "Not bad, Jessy."

"Why, thank you," the other girl replied with a sweet smile. Then she turned back to Sirius. "Do you like your present?"

"It was you?" he asked incredulously. "Why I oughta—"

"You wouldn't throw a snowball at a lady, would you?" Anna asked, all innocence.

"You're not ladies," Sirius growled. His snowball went high, skimming the top of Jessy's head.

"That'll do it," she said with a wicked grin.

"Do what?" Remus said, looking back at Sirius. "What have you done this time?"

"Me?" Sirius asked. "I didn't do anything. Tilia, tell him I didn't do anything!" he demanded.

"My dear cousin," she said, "you just declared war." All four girls were wearing identical grins.

And, in a barrage of snowballs, they stormed Sirius and Remus' snow fort. Yelping, Sirius scrambled around to James and Peter's fort. "Let us in! Let us in!"

"No way," James said. "Your problem, not mine."

"It's not my fault," Remus said as he slipped further back, and out of range of Jessy's curve ball. James stared at him for a long moment.

"You're a fair shot, you know?"

"Thanks," Remus murmured, accepting the only apology he was going to get for James' earlier statement. "Duck."

"Wha—" Too late. Lily's snowball hit James on the back of the head, and he pitched forward, struggling to keep his balance. Sirius glanced back at the fort he had so recently vacated with a sigh.

"Our fort was better," he grumbled.

"Yeah, well, you're the one who lost it," Peter said.

Sirius made a face at him. "It wasn't designed to withstand a rear offensive." He frowned in thought. "What we need," he said, "is a plan. Time for a huddle."

"A what?" Peter asked.

"Dunno," Sirius shrugged. "Heard some big sports guys talking and I liked the word."

James glanced away, and Remus caught his eye, shaking his head with a faint smile. "What?" James asked Remus sharply.

"Nothing," Remus said.

"What are you laughing at?" James elaborated.

"Nothing," Remus repeated.

"Why—" And he lunged at Remus; the two scuffled in the snow with Sirius doing an enthusiastic commentary, until Jessy crowed, "Dissension in the ranks. They're already half beat!"

They stopped immediately. "Oh. Right." James got up, and moved back, and Remus, sprawled on his back on the snow, sighed, before making a snow angel. The others stared at him.

"What?" he asked as he sat up, dusting snow from his hair.

"They laughed at me," Peter mumbled.

"They made some earlier," Remus said. "Maybe ten of them." He pointed towards the place where the other angels were.

Peter looked at them reproachfully. "You said only babies make snow angels."

"Well, um," Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "It's just—"

"That's the beauty of a snow angel, really," Remus said softly. "Anyone can make them. And everyone who does leaves a little print of themselves, so when you walk alone, and come across one, you're not alone. You remember that there's other people out in the lifeless landscape." The moment was broken as a snowball from Tilia sprayed across his coat, dusting it with glittering bits of white.

"O-kay," James said slowly. "You read too much, Remus."

"Yeah, you should get out more," Sirius said.

"Hey!" Lily called. "Are you guys just gonna sit there all day?"

James leapt to his feet. "Evans! This one's for you."

Lily sighed. "Oh, really?" she asked.

"Get ready for a Slush-ball of Doooooooooom." He trailed off as the slush-ball went wide and hit a tree instead. Sirius doubled over, laughing, but stopped abruptly as James tapped him on the shoulder, grinning and holding a slush-ball.

"No, no, I didn't—Aah!" Sirius yelled as James smeared it across his face like a cream pie. And the snowball war devolved into a free-for-all, with every man out for himself.

Half an hour later, all eight collapsed in front of the fire in the mostly deserted common room, panting for breath, and desperately wishing for some hot chocolate.

"Hey, Black?" Jessy asked when they could all breathe again.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Good idea."

"What?"

"The snowball fight. It was a good idea," she said.

Lily sighed. "What do you mean, 'good idea?' Do you have any idea how much homework we have?"

"Relax, Lily, it's Friday," Tilia murmured.

But Lily was unrelenting. She dragged the other girls off to collect their books, with the other three grumbling all the way. Sirius watched Jessy go with a funny grin on his face.

"She said it was a good idea," he murmured.

"Ooh," James said. "Someone's in love."

"Am not," Sirius said, hitting James on the shoulder. "It just means she doesn't think I'm childish anymore."

"I didn't say that," Jessy said, as the girls were passing back on the way to the library. "Just that sometimes, it's okay to act like a kid. So there." And they disappeared out of the portrait hole.

"She still had snow in her hair," Sirius said.

"An angel of snow, huh?" Remus said with a gentle, teasing smile.

"Shut up," Sirius grumbled.

Sirius went for a walk alone on Saturday. When he passed the spot where he and James had made the snow angels the day before, he paused to make another, but someone else already had. Four someones, actually, and the girls had signed them. He smiled, remembering what Remus had said the day before about leaving a bit of you behind. He added another angel, just for good measure.


End file.
